Childcare Vouchers Payment Error!

mtoreilly

FBaby wrote: »

It sounds like you thought you got away with one month's payment and as it's been caught, you are now trying to find justification why because it is not your fault, you should be entitled to it.

I find that a little offensive, to be honest. We're not trying to get out of paying anything, if we owe the nursery (which I agree, take that erroneous payment out, we do) we'll pay them.

My question was not "can I get away with diddling WCC because of their error", I simply don't understand why they are chasing us for the payment, because it wasn't paid to us.

I know it isn't quite the same, but say you mistakenly overpaid a builder for some work they did, would you go to the supermarket he uses and ask them for the money back? Of course not, you would go to the builder, the person who the money was sent to.

If the payment hadn't been made automatically by the voucher company and we had
paid the missing sum (which we didn't even know about) should we still be liable
for it's return?

As I said previously, if we had paid the month when no voucher was paid to the nursery (which if we had been told a payment was missing, we would have) and the extra payment had not been made by WCC, then there would be £243 sitting with the voucher provider, so surely WCC should reclaim that money from them, not us, as we would then be down £243? Coincidental issues aside, the situation we are actually in is no different from this. We owe the nursery money, not WCC; they are owed by the voucher company.

NYM

1) The nursery hasn't been overpaid.
2) Your wife's new employer hadn't set up the payment. In effect, you'd be in arrears with your child care provider.
3) WCC made the payment on your behalf - (call it a loan) and you owe it to them.

LittleMissGiggles123

You owe the money whether it be to the nursery or the previous employer, so does it really matter who you pay it to?

marliepanda

It's not your money. Pay it back.

mtoreilly

NYM wrote: »

1) The nursery hasn't been overpaid.

I didn't say the nursery had been overpaid, anywhere. If you're eluding to my builder analogy, then there the builder is the voucher company, nursery are the shop and "you" are WCC.

NYM wrote: »

2) Your wife's new employer hadn't set up the payment. In effect, you'd be in arrears with your child care provider.

Yes, I understand that and have acknowledged this in a previous post. I'll repeat that we're not quibbling owing money, but to whom we owe the money.

NYM wrote: »

3) WCC made the payment on your behalf - (call it a loan) and you owe it to them.

They sent money to an organisation (the voucher company) in error, so (as is my original question), should it not be that organisation they are chasing the money from.

If that means that the voucher company has to claim back from the nursery to allow them to give it back to WCC, then so be it. Then we pay the nursery what we owe them. Another thing I have already said was that if the voucher company hadn't paid the nursery, and it was just sat in their account waiting, and we had paid the month when no voucher came through after my wife changed jobs, then would it still be us who they should chase? Because in that scenario, paying the authority leaves us with having paid twice, in effect, and £243 sat in the ether with a voucher company. Or are you saying that in that case, we would have to claim it from the voucher company? Because that doesn't make sense at all.

LittleMissGiggles123 wrote:

You owe the money whether it be to the nursery or the previous employer, so does it really matter who you pay it to?

To me, it does. I feel like they are trying to get the money back from us as it's easier for them than taking what I think is the correct route. I object to large companies/organisations not doing things correctly, as they often do, because they can get away with it. I understand and have no issue with owing £243; my only issue is who I owe that money to.

NYM

I really don't understand why you'd expect your wife's previous employer to reclaim from the voucher company who would then reclaim from the nursery who would then reclaim from your wife.

Just pay it to WCC because not doing so, is unreasonable.

mtoreilly

NYM wrote: »

I really don't understand why you'd expect your wife's previous employer to reclaim from the voucher company who would then reclaim from the nursery who would then reclaim from your wife.

Just pay it to WCC because not doing so, is unreasonable.

I think this is the problem: we fundamentally disagree on what is reasonable. Your position is that if we repay WCC then all the books balance and so the problem is solved. My position is that WCC should be properly correcting the problem that they have made. Is it unreasonable to expect a company to correctly rectify the situation? I wouldn't say so.

FBaby

So how do you suggest they properly correct the problem? Either way, you will be £243 worse off, so does it matter?

mtoreilly

FBaby wrote: »

So how do you suggest they properly correct the problem? Either way, you will be £243 worse off, so does it matter?

I've already answered both of these 3 posts up.

Takeaway_Addict

mtoreilly wrote: »

I've already answered both of these 3 posts up.

3 posts up was another poster but either way, stop being awkward.